Fisher, 2011) that addresses such matters as waste, emission and energy reductions. This
article proposes a framework to guide organizations to better direct their future planning for
sustainability strategies.
Figure 2 provides a landscape perspective of an organization’s strategic approach to the
sustainability process. Dealing with sustainability at a strategic level is an ongoing process
rather than a single planning event. This requires ongoing management attention and focus
to effectively identify and prioritize the key issues, so as to formulate and implement
appropriate objectives and strategies that will address each priority issue (Bonn and
Fisher, 2011, p. 9).
An explanation of this landscape begins at the left hand side of Figure 2. At a point in time,
responsibilities will be assigned regarding who should drive and manage the sustainability
effort for the organization. Before any planning takes place, management must understand the
organization’s current position on sustainability endeavours. Hence, an audit phase would
objectively raise awareness of the current position with senior management. An example of a
large global organization that considers this audit phase as fundamental to the integrity of the
sustainability process is BHP Billiton (2011; BHP Sustainability Report, p. 3):
We conduct regular internal audits to test compliance. Audits are led by professional audit
managers and supported by experienced personnel drawn from across the organisation. Audit
results are used by management to create detailed action plans where the businesses have
not yet achieved full compliance with the requirements. Key findings are reported to senior
management and summary reports are considered by the Sustainability Committee of the Board.
One widely accepted method of understanding an organization’s current position is to list and
prioritize the key internal and external strategic issues at a point in time. The internal and
external strategic sustainability issues (SSIs) need to be collected and evaluated in the social,
economic and environmental areas. The organization needs to effectively link with both internal
and external stakeholder groups, which should have regular input regarding the issues that will
need to be considered in preparing the organization’s strategic sustainability framework.